What Is WordPress?

The definition of WordPress definition 

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that helps entrepreneurs and webmasters regularly edit content without using traditional HTML editing software, such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage, which is a more sophisticated version of CMS. WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world.

More than 41% of sites currently run on this platform (more than 10 million websites over the world). To better understand what WordPress is, let’s take a brief look at the history.

History of WordPress

WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform. Everyone could create their own simple website and share the news on it. The first edition took place in 2003. May 27 Using version 0.70. This makes WordPress older than Facebook (February 2004) or Twitter (March 21, 2006).  The platform was written in PHP and the database server was MySQL. It was open source, which is why it became so popular. The openness of the code meant that any programmer could access it. As a result, people began to actively write their own plug-ins, controls, extensions, thus extending the functionality of CMS WordPress. Someone started making money from it, and someone just created useful supplements.

Due to its growing popularity and ever-expanding functionality, WordPress has ceased to be a blogging platform over time. Today, with this CMS, you can create almost any website. WordPress is suitable for online stores, information and news portals, corporate websites, blogs, and commerce.

Interesting fact, one of the creators, Mullenweg, is closely related with Jazz, so he named the all WordPress updates by greats Jazz from the past and today. He used to include a plugin honored by Louis Armstrong in every release, called Hello Dolly.

WordPress 1.0 was the most similar to the WordPress platform we know these days. With search engine friendly permalinks, multiple categories, simple installations, upgrade capabilities, and comment moderation and early CMS.

These days WordPress is used by 64.8% of all the websites whose content management system is known. Besides being the most widely-used CMS, WordPress is also the fastest growing. 

Application of WordPress

Today, the main WordPress users are businesses and organizations. This platform is one of the most advanced and is the absolute market leader. It allows you to develop together with the business, starting with the smallest budgets, ending with the complex automation of business processes and ensuring the interaction with customers necessary for large and growing companies.

WordPress is perhaps the most flexible and democratic content management system. Suitable for both: small businesses and the largest federal and international companies.

The WordPress platform can be useful for any local business, from a person engaged in baking or, these days, popular, beauty or other service providers. In today’s world, a business that can be found online is more accessible to a larger audience of people than just a physical one, with only a local store around the corner, or developed only in your own backyard.

The biggest brands in the World and WordPress

While the WordPress platform is a great opportunity for small businesses to have their own website, you will be amazed at how many well-known brands use this platform to make their brand accessible to every Internet user.

Here we will provide just a small list, and I certainly have no doubt that you will know, or at least you will have heard of these companies:

1. BBC America – the best American scripted television series alongside the best in British entertainment, making it very popular no matter which side of the pond you’re on. On this website you can read the blog and shop online for merchandise as well.

2. Sony Music is a global music company that also uses WordPress. The site has a title slider that shows singers, artists, bands, videos, news, and their Twitter timeline.

3. Facebook Newsroom – It is the most popular social media site news and announcements platform, which is minimalist in style but user-friendly for every user.

4. Katy Perry – Music, videos, tours, photos and a shop can be found on the American Goddess website. It looks bold and elegant, with a headline slider, video section, store section and the latest news section.

5. PlayStation Blog – The video player’s favorite PlayStation has its own WordPress blog. At the bottom of the home page of the site you will find themed sections and a simple masonry style blog.

Also, the WordPress platform is inseparable from such brands as: Skype, The Walt Disney Company, Star Wars Blog, MTV News, Vogue and many others.

Easy of use

In addition to the fact that the platform has open access to the code, it remains one of the most convenient to use. This is also an important factor. It is thanks to the convenience and ease of use that literally any person who has never worked with sites before will be able to master it and create, albeit simple, but his own resource.

One of the great features of the platform is its intuitive and easy-to-use interface. If you know how to use Microsoft Word, you shouldn’t worry about WordPress. This convenience is largely due to the high-quality organization of the admin panel, which has been constantly modified over the years. You will be able to create and publish your content without any problems!

WordPress functionality

So, let’s go through the main features of the WordPress engine:

1. Allows you to create, delete and edit static pages (for example, “About company”, “Contacts”, “Product X”, etc.).
2. Allows you to create, delete and edit records (publications).
3. Extensive possibilities for working with comments (enable, disable, tree-like format, maximum number on one page, etc.).
4. Support for CNC (human-readable URL), writing your own URLs, a wide range of formats.
5. Support for tags, headings, RSS, search.
6. An excellent text editor WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get – what you see is what you get), working in two modes: visual and HTML.
7. Online photo and image editor that allows you to crop, rotate, scale, etc.
8. A large selection of ready-made templates, which greatly simplifies the process of creating a website.
9. One of the large sets of various plugins and widgets allow you to add custom functions.

It is impossible to describe absolutely all the features of CMS WordPress within one article. Open source code has allowed the platform to acquire so many functions and tools that even the most experienced users don’t know everything. When working with WordPress, it will be quite enough to know the main features of this platform, the most popular and most necessary plugins.

Outcome

CMS WordPress is rightfully considered one of the most popular and best site content management systems. Everything that has been discussed in this article is only a small part of what this engine is and can do. These are basic functions and tools. You can go deep into the study of all the features of WP for a long time. But for novice webmasters, it is worth remembering at least this information. With it, you can already create your own, albeit simple, but still a site.

Use WordPress in your work, explore new features, test various plugins, and then you will definitely be successful.